The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a prosperous and progressive part of our federal union. However, as indicated in the recent arresting report from Mass. Budget and Policy Center: From Poverty to Opportunity: The Challenge of Building a Great Society, the child poverty rate in Massachusetts has risen significantly from 9 percent in 1970 to 16 percent in 2013. That is a very strong statement on how the war on poverty is going in the Commonwealth. A significant percentage of family units are not functioning strongly enough economically to provide opportunity for the future.

Sadly, Springfield is in a deep pocket of poverty— through a low-income base and high unemployment, which keeps communities in a long-term economically vulnerable position. This cycle of poverty impacts the ability of a person to function in society, and has a domino effect on issues such as homelessness and malnutrition. There are non-profits who help people pay bills and energize a culture of saving and the building of assets, and these programs work extremely well. However, if people do not have jobs, they cannot save money or build assets. Job creation, job readiness and small business growth must become the core of our collective community action.

An educated and skilled workforce is essential for a region to attract new businesses and jobs, and to drive the creation of small businesses. Springfield is a city with some strong infrastructure and affordable business space making it an attractive location for businesses. However, businesses need a strong consumer base and/ or an educated workforce. That makes this a balancing act: People need jobs for income. Businesses need revenue to provide jobs. This means we have to box clever in the margins, and make the most of what we have.

When President Johnson committed all of us to tackle poverty, he said “We must open the doors of opportunity but we must also equip our people to walk through those doors.” Through on-the-street innovation and sustaining partnerships city-wide non-profits put support services around people to put them on the path to opportunity. At Springfield Partners for Community Action, we find that there is a collective eagerness amongst the great majority of people to rise above poverty and we implement a self-sufficiency model for low-income families to access. This model includes programs such as financial literacy, savings strategies, credit counseling, job readiness, energy assistance, income tax preparation assistance and childcare. It is a model that encourages asset building and the pursuance of employment and educational opportunities.

A great difficulty in fighting poverty, especially in Springfield, is that our communities are especially vulnerable to macro-economic conditions and act-of-God occurrences. Nothing illustrated this more than the recent Great Recession of 2007 – 2009 and the tornado of 2011 that resulted in increased unemployment. Pre-recession, we were at the 5-6% range and now 8.9% are unemployed. When people push out of poverty, we want them to keep on an upward trajectory. The further away from poverty a community moves, the less vulnerable it is to external forces.

The very name "Springfield Partners for Community Action" represents a philosophy our city must collectively pursue. I urge businesses in Greater Springfield to perform an internal analysis on how you can provide job placements, internships, apprenticeships or job training opportunities. Your department may have potential for a job that needs doing, and that is an opportunity to afford an enthusiastic individual with life-changing economic and personal growth advancement. It may be the spark for something special to happen. You will find that there are non-profits in the area that will work with you to access willing participants, provide a connection to a vigorous community and build programmatic support.

As non-profits, we can work with our local educational institutions to set up workshops— bringing skills and professional know-how into our community. This is absolutely critical, as the characteristics of our economy are heavily knowledge-based, and this is what divides us as economic units or a society. Through these types of workshops we can make our community job-ready, or to provide them with the knowledge and tools to create their own businesses.

There is a lot of rhetoric about “working together” but we must turn ourselves into masters of developing innovative long-term partnerships with solid goals. We need to focus on our efficiencies. A great majority of our poverty fighting agencies are running at full tilt with talented compassionate staff working long hours to help their communities. Judging by the recent Massachusetts Association for Community Action (MASSCAP) symposium in Boston, there is an indomitable will to win the fight against poverty.

Our power is in our diversity. When we have people with different talents and resources from different backgrounds coming together to create a platform of opportunity growth, it will benefit economic renewal and the subsequent alleviation of poverty.

Paul Bailey is Executive Director of Springfield Partners for Community Action.